Given the popularity of stock car racing in the United States and the relative affordability of retired stock cars, we’re surprised that vintage NASCAR racers aren’t seen at more concours events on these shores. Later this month, the Concours d’Elegance of America at St. John’s will look to right this wrong by featuring a Vintage NASCAR class.

Eight cars are confirmed for the class thus far, ranging in vintage from a 1952 Hudson Hornet to a 1972 Dodge Charger. While some are better known than others, each has a story to tell, and each played a significant role in the evolution of stock car racing as America’s most popular form of motorsports.

The 1952 Hudson Hornet to be shown, owned by Jack C. Miller of Ypsilanti, Michigan, can trace its ownership back to 1951, when owner (and former NASCAR treasurer) Marshall Teague hired driver Herb Thomas away from Plymouth. With Thomas at the wheel, the Hudson would go on to achieve 15 wins from 1951-1953, enabling Teague’s “Fabulous Hudson Hornet” team to finish second in the 1952 points race.

Perhaps the most famous car to be shown is the 1963 Chevrolet Impala of Robert Glenn “Junior” Johnson, currently owned by Robert Kauffmann of Charlotte, North Carolina. Campaigned by Johnson during the 1963 NASCAR season, the car recorded seven victories and set a speed record at Daytona, thanks in part to the 427-cu.in. “Mystery Motor” V-8 built by Chevrolet and supplied to a handful of factory-supported teams just before GM ended its formal involvement in motorsports. As delivered to Johnson, the RPO Z33 MkII V-8 was believed to produce over 600 horsepower, but it was disallowed by NASCAR following the introduction of a new V-8 from Chevrolet in 1964.

1969 Ford Talladega. Photo courtesy Barry Miller.

By the late 1960s, aerodynamics had begun to play an important role in NASCAR’s top tiers, meaning that the 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix once campaigned by “The Flying Indian” Roy Tyner (and currently owned by Keith Vrabec of Bear Township, Pennsylvania) was limited in its competitiveness as soon as it was built. Cars like the 1969 Ford Talladega, with its lowered ride height, fastback design and custom nose proved unbeatable on high-speed tracks, and the Concours d’Elegance of America will feature a 1969 Ford Talladega once campaigned by Benny Parsons (and later, Wendell Scott) and currently owned by Barry Miller of Portland, Indiana.

A second example of NASCAR’s “aero period” to be shown is the 1970 Plymouth Superbird owned by Douglas Schellinger of New Berlin, Wisconsin, and formerly raced by Ramo Stott. Based on the proven design of the Dodge Charger Daytona, the Plymouth Superbird was used by Chrysler to lure Richard Petty back to Plymouth after Petty Motorsports switched to the Ford Talladega for a season. The Ray Nichols Engineering-built Superbird on display is known to have recorded the model’s very first win, with Stott achieving victory in the 1970 ARCA 300 at Daytona, before going on to win the 1970 ARCA 500 at Talladega and at the 1972 USAC Michigan Twin 200.

In the early 1970s, manufacturers sought ways to increase the popularity of stock car racing, and Chrysler even marketed a “build it yourself” kit car for that purpose. On display will be a 1972 Dodge Challenger kit car prototype, owned by Edward Bryan Skanes of Lexington, Kentucky, but originally developed by Petty Enterprises as a low-cost way for Mopar owners to go racing. For $8,800, aspiring racers could build a circle-track racer capable of turning competitive lap times right out of the box, and Chrysler even bragged that its package had “taken the mystery out of building a stock car.”

Skanes’s car is particularly notable, as he has reason to believe it was the very car tested by a young, down-on-his-luck Dale Earnhardt Sr. in 1973. As the story goes, Earnhardt was having a difficult time making a living behind the wheel of a race car, and was seriously considering a switch to farming full time to support his family. When Chrysler’s manager of stock car programs, Larry Rathgeb, needed a dirt track driver familiar with North Carolina’s Concord Speedway to test the new Challenger kit car, Earnhardt was recommended. Paid $800 for two days’ worth of driving (far more than Earnhardt was winning at the time), the young driver impressed Rathgeb. Though Chrysler could not offer Earnhardt a ride (or even sponsorship), Rathgeb suggested that Earnhardt stick with racing, ultimately reshaping the face of NASCAR.

When Skanes discovered the historic Challenger, it was hardly in pristine condition. First rebodied as a Dart and later rebodied as a Mirada, the car had seen decades’ worth of abuse as a dirt track car. Still, there were clues that the car was worth far more than the $500 asking price, like its unique suspension, Petty rear end and “Saturday Night Special” dash markings. A quick call to Buddy Crouch in Kentucky revealed that this was the same car he’d owned from 1975 to 1980, and it was believed to be the same car tested by Earnhardt at Concord Speedway. Now restored (but with some retained “patina,” in Skanes’s words), the car is making its debut at the Concours d’Elegance of America.

Other vintage NASCAR racers to be displayed include a 1953 Oldsmobile Deluxe 88, owned by William Adcock of Lansing, Michigan, and a 1972 Dodge Charger owned by Milton Wood of Chelsea, Michigan.

The Concours d’Elegance of America will take place on Sunday, July 28, at The Inn at St. Johns in Plymouth, Michigan. For more information, visit ConcoursUSA.org.

21 Responses to “Vintage NASCAR racers to appear at Concours d’Elegance of America”

Seeing these cars sparks an interest in NASCAR that has long disappeared from my tastes, since the advent of “cookie cutter” cars that all look alike. Those were the days when the cars looked like cars, and those who drove them truly earned the right to claim victory. Winning was a function of many skills borne together to make it all happen – part driver, mechanic, owner, engine builder, suspension and handling, and the ability to bend the rule book without tearing it down. What happens today in the sport is truly amazing, but it is at the hands (and minds) of thousands of employees, not the desires of one or a handful of racers who have “the knack”. The end of that era came at the loss of Alan Kulwicki.

Hold on to your good memories of NASCAR when racing was racing and not car owners driving cars they don’t own and letting the one they do own pass them for bigger money in their pocket than they’ll make if they win themselves. NASCAR has become a pathetic shadow of greatness long past… It’s even a shadow of the greatness it still had 15 years ago.

I agree 100% with Greg, today’s NASCAR racing is a joke, big money team cars and drivers control who is going to win. About the only part of todays NASCAR races I watch is the first fifteen and the last fifteen laps when the big wrecks are most likely to happen. Other than the wrecks there isn’t much excitement in watching identical cars go round and round and round, almost as boring as watching a ping pong match. In the good old days when cars were in their factory shell, a Ford was a Ford, a Chevy was a Chevy. The owner, driver, mechanic, engine builder, etc. were all the same guy pulling the race car to the track on his own trailer behind a pickup truck full of parts, tires, and his own tools.

So true about NASCAR. Get over to your local track for some Saturday Night racing, and you will find what you are looking for. It will take a few weeks to learn who the players are, and the pits are usually open after the event to give you a chance to inspect the equipment.

I think the interest might develop, ken, if it weren’t for the passionate people who have the memories of the old days being fearful that the heavy hitters of collector car values ( I won’t mention any names or corporations) driving the price of these collectibles to the “out of reach” category. Some of the old affordable collectible stuff will usually be so tore up it would definitely be a challenge to bring it back. But that is what makes it affordable, and being a non-driver, it doesn’t need to pass the muster of a state inspection, either. I really enjoy seeing some of the old dirt trackers, the early USAC stuff and the like. I was born in the wrong generation.

Greg – you are exactly right! At least these cars had “character “. As well as the old dirt trackers and especially the Indy roadsters from the ’50s and ’60’s. I was st least lucky enough to have been able to see them race! The best of all was attending the Hoosier 100 at the old dirt track and getting to see Foyt, Andretti, the Unsers and other drivers of that era wheeling the dirt champ cars.

How true, i think the rest of the “team” test parts so he can win. That is not what NASCAR was meant to be.
Petty vs Pearson vs whoever- that was NASCAR! At the start of the race you would be sure that by the end of the day you would have been entertained- a race would have taken place, not just a high price sponsored car filling in time on a track.

The lack of NASCAR presence or themes in the Concours world probably come down to class difference or at least the perception of class difference. Nascar is probably too vulgar for some and Gran Prix racing too snooty for others. People can be pretty ignorant.

Like the old days of the convertible race cars, the “open air” square T-Birds comes to mind with the huge roll bar going over behind the driver’s seat to the other side. And as heavy as they were it was amazing how fast they were!

I have the original article on the Challenger KitCar. It was called Chrysler’s Saturday Night Special.
The car was breaking records on dirt and track after two days of testing.
Awesome article.
Glad to see one after all these years.

FYI; The original Challenger KitCar had extended wheel wells that went above the s belt line.

The original Challenger KitCar was rebodied many times over the years; when discovered, it was wearing a Dodge Mirada body. The body you see here is indeed from another Challenger, but only because the original was lost to history.